Rebooted
by Mark50
Summary: After losing the person that means the most to him, Tony realizes that something has been messing with his life as it sees fit - and it will require Iron Man to reinvent himself in order to take this enemy down.
1. startup

**As my first story, the tone will probably make you think I'm a hyper depressed person, but I can assure you, I'm a very happy narcissist with plans to lighten the tone as we move along.**

* * *

 **Rebooted**

Chapter 1: startup

The incident was 2 years ago, and Tony Stark remained locked inside the Armory as if it had happened yesterday. The Mark 2 armor was on constant standby for the times he had actually rested after his daily 19 hour patrol. His life plans were replaced by his Iron Man missions; his withheld application to MIT left sitting inside a mountain of garbage. Armor parts were scattered throughout his lab; suits of armor that had not used in the previous 2 years were dismantled haphazardly or simply thrown in a melting pit.

The room now reeked of loneliness and regret, only outdone by the stench emanating from the lost billionaire who had stopped bothering with hygiene some time last year. Rhodey and Happy had long ceased to attempt comforting the genius, and not even Howard Stark could penetrate the mental wall that his son had put up; all he had been able to do for the boy was send him clean clothes and groceries every 2-3 weeks, as the odd time that Tony had decided to change clothes lead to throwing his other outfit in the garbage heap.

Tony was broken.

Looking in the mirror reminded him of how much she would have disapproved of his current appearance. _She would hate this,_ he thought as he looked at his now thickly bearded face. The thought almost made him smile before new tears started flowing down his cheeks, running over the blanket of previous dried ones that he had left untended.

 _Why?_

It was not a new thing for him to ask himself, especially after finding an old photo that got thrown under his workbench at some point. The picture was of a couple practically drowning in their happiness... happiness... an emotion long forgotten by the shadow of the once smug, prideful man in the photo. He looked at the picture with true regret; if he could have said the words before everything went to shit, even just once... that would have been enough.

"I need you," he whispered, as if the hushed words could somehow reach their target.

xXxXx

Regardless of how hard he tried to focus on upgrading his armor, all it reminded him of was the time it failed him when he needed it most. He began tearing up at the thought of what the failure had cost him. Had he the time to fix the critical error, he might have been living happily.

Thinking about it made it that much easier to cry himself to sleep.

xXxXx

 _Clunk! Clunk! Clunk!_

He approached the heavy metal door with little more than a snail's pace without caring to put the armor back into its pod.

"Go away," the inventor croaked. All he had wanted was some peace and quiet, even though he knew whoever it was wouldn't just leave him be. When he got to the door to look through the peephole he had installed he had seen no one on the other side. He turned on his heel to head back to-

 _Clunk! Clunk! Clunk!_

Tony walked back to the door, unlocked it and had opened his mouth to tell the person off, but who he saw nearly made his heart stop.

"P-pe-p-pe..."

"Did you forget again?" She asked, with a frown growing on her face when the boy stood still and made no visible effort to respond.

"This is the third time this week! First we rescheduled on Tuesday, then yesterday, now today? Did you go out on a mission without me? Who was it? Not that there's many super-criminals left, I mean. Was it someone new? Should you-"

She trailed off mid question when she realized his posture remained frozen.

"Tony?"

After Tony finally took a teary eyed blink, the redhead was no longer there. The broken hero then began to sob when he realized it was yet another hallucination.

* * *

I realize that this may not be the most well written, but I just really wanted to get a storyline I came up with out of my head. I hope you can put up with my writing abilities enough that you can enjoy reading the coming chapters :)

Also, as you may have noticed, I have updated this chapter several times after initially publishing it in order to make everything seem more accurate to the characters we know and love.

 **Chapter 2: critical error** should be released by Sunday, then updated at somewhere around 10 times before the week is finished.


	2. critical error

**Can anybody say: "Tone shift?"**

 **So if you enjoyed the last chapter, I hope you'll also find this one to your liking.**

 **I'll try to post a new chapter every weekend.**

* * *

Chapter 2: critical error

 _She's_ _dead._

Those were the only words in his mind. It was not new for Tony to see her form talking to him, regardless of whether it was real or not. He could not began to tell what was and what wasn't real at this point of grief, not helped by the fact that he hadn't even been present when the redhead's suit of armor had failed her, in some way. Though the doctors never told him the cause of death and the armor had sustained no heavy damage, he blamed himself for not being there.

 _Where was 'there'?_

The inventor was momentarily taken aback by the realization that he had not remembered where the redhead had passed, before beginning to question everything he knew about the whole situation; in truth, he knew very little of it. He could not even remember what he had been doing the day of, before or during. All he could remember was seeing and holding the pale, lifeless body of the person he had been planning to confess his feelings for. The billionaire had chosen to spend the previous few days trying to help S.H.I.E.L.D. awaken a frozen super soldier instead of going out with Pepper; a decision he now painfully regretted making. His Extremis had started going a bit haywire ever since, which he had been pinning on his emotional state.

 _But what if..._

A glimmer of hope popped into his mind when he considered the thought.

 _Someone could be hacking my Extremis right now..._

Tony considered the possibility of someone planting a false sense of reality into his mind via his connection to computers, but ultimately registered it as false hope coming from his subconscious. He didn't even know if it WAS a possibility.

 _Extremis doesn't work like that, right?_

[Beep! Beep!]

The alarm for the start of his daily Iron Man patrol kept him from running some diagnostics, so he left a note on his computer to remind him later.

xXxXx

 _Shouldn't have left the Armory._

[B-O-O-M!]

 _Definitely should have stayed at the Armory._

The heavy steel door to his left had been ripped off of it's hinges, and was flying towards him. The hero used his jets to dodge to the left, but before he could get back to a solid standing position, his right food had been grabbed out from underneath him. "Pardon moi, monsieur!"

 _Batroc the fucking leaper._

With the genius' foot still in a tight hold, the purple and gold clad frenchman performed a front flip with the intent of using the armour's weight to slam it into the ground. Before he could complete the move however, Tony fired the foot thruster into the thief's exposed face at low power, making the ridiculous man release his grasp to turn away. When the slightly burnt face had finished turning, an armoured fist had been waiting for him.

Leaving Batroc unconscious with a noticeable black eye and tipping off the police, the metal man had quickly found himself back at the Armory laying down wearing nothing but boxer shorts under the blankets of his bed.

xXxXx

 _Where's the note?_ The inventor had just woken up and put on clothes when he walked over to the workbench to find that the note he had left last night was gone.

 _Was my dad or Rhodey here?_

He could not think of a single other person who would have visited his makeshift living quarters.

 _They don't visit me any more though..._ he considered with a frown.

"Computers: comb through the surveillance footage of the last 12 hours. Alert me of any presence aside from myself."

" **Analyzing... cancelled**."

"Cancelled?! Why was it cancelled?!

Sooner than the words had finished leaving his mouth, an image began forming on the screen before the inventor.

"Now that you've outlived your usefulness, I'd rather you find out from me personally, Tony," a familiar, calm voice replacing the mechanical one.

"I'd like to reintroduce you to: The Mainframe."

* * *

 ** _Surprise?_**

If you are wondering why he's only realizing this now, it is explained... in the next chapter.

 **Chapter 3: error 404** should be released next weekend or sometime shortly after. It'll conclude this part of the story arc :D


	3. error 404

**The third and final chapter in the "Mainframe" story arc.**

 **This was released pretty early, but since I'm done writing Chapter 4, I decided I'd publish it now.**

 **Hopefully you enjoy this chapter :)**

* * *

Chapter 3: error 404

"Sandhurst?!"

"Hello, Tony. I see that my men have forgotten to reset your memory today."

"But how did- your memory..."

"Was it?"

The boy was taken aback.

 _How is Sandhurst here? His memories were definitely wiped!_

"Tony, I'd like to personally thank you for your assistance in my synthesizing of Extremis. Without you, I would never be in complete control."

With these words, the billionaire's mind had started replaying every action he had made involving Extremis after initally being taken into the Mainframe- when he had used it to 'shut it down', when he had taken down Titanium Man and when he had fried Iron Monger, he had been providing technical specs of the virus; then his work from 2 years ago for waking the frozen body of 'Steve Rogers' provided how to create an injection friendly form of the virus.

The Controller let out a slight chuckle when he realized what the inventor had been thinking.

"You don't know how much I've been waiting for this, Tony."

 _Pepper was alive._

Tony's mind was working in overdrive. Every thought in his head was focused on trying to find some form of weakness that would allow him to escape the glorified virtual reality, but all he needed was a little bit of time.

"So are you going to try to kill me now?"

"You might still be of use to me, I'm afraid."

"You aren't getting anything out of me again," Tony let out with a smug grin.

 _That's it._

The smug grin on his face disappeared, to be replaced by a look of heavy concentration accompanied by a slight twitch of his eye.

"And, why not?" Sandhurst inquired, intrigued by the young man's sudden feeling of confidence.

"My armour's en route to this location, right now."

"No it's not. I control everything in here."

"I'm not talking about in here," the inventor responded calmly.

His armor had the ability to block mental attacks, so if he could get it to assemble around his body, it would block the feed to the Mainframe.

 _How did he find out?!_

If Iron Man can avoid mental invasions while in the armor, then Tony Stark must have been the vulnerability. Basil Sandhurst had discovered his secret identity before the initial Mainframe attack. He could feel the blood in his veins boil as his armor formed around his body, regardless of whether he could see it in the Mainframe or not.

"Wait... what are you doing? Your suit may be able to cut the mental feed, but if you do that, it will rip your mind apart."

"I don't care, Sandhurst," the scientist replied, fighting the urge to scream when he started feeling the strain he was putting on his brain.

"Stark! Stop it! If you separate yourself like this, your Pepper will never see you alive again!"

"It's suicide either way, Sandhurst," the genius responded, trying his best to hide some of his pain. The ripping feeling in his head finally stepped aside when his head felt a cold piece of armor closing around it.

xXxXx

"Tony? Please wake up, Tony..."

Upon hearing her familiar voice softly pleading with him, he felt his eyelids lift to see her upper body tightly wrapped around his on a small hospital bed.

"Tony!"

He returned the hug as best as he could and opened his mouth, but no sound made it past his lips. He reached out with his hand to touch her face so he could ensure it was real, and in return she grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently. They began gazing into each other's eyes before starting to slowly release their hold of each other.

"RHODEY!" She yelled, with the door opening immediately after the name had left her mouth.

"Tony? You're awake!"

"I noticed, thanks," the inventor croaked, his voice just now returning to his body.

"Are you ok, man?" Rhodey questioned, his face drenched in concern for his best friend.

"I'm fine, Rhodey. Where's my dad?"

Both of his friends exchanged worried glances, signifying something important was about to be said to him.

"Wait... what's the last thing that happened, before... before this...?" the inventor's tone not quite able to show his full confusion.

"Well," the redhead started, "We had just finished up with Andros Stark when you suddenly passed out, out of nowhere..."

"So my dad... he's still..."

Rhodey looked at him with an unreadable expression.

"Nobody's seen him since the plane crash."

* * *

Error 404 - file: "Howard" not found.

I realize that this one may not be quite as good as the other two, but it sets up the next bit pretty well.

 **Chapter 4: upgrade** is to be released on Friday.


	4. upgrade

**This is going to be a lighter tone than I've previously done, so it may not be as well written.**

 **I figured it'd would be a good pick me up after Chapters 1 &2 :)**

 **Make sure not to get too comfortable here because this tone won't last long. Hope you enjoy it while it lasts though :P**

* * *

Chapter 4: upgrade

"Rhodey... how long have I been out for?"

"Well, T, I mean, it just kind of-"

"How long?"

"2 weeks."

 _2 weeks since Andros showed up._

Over 2 years of a life that never took place. So many things that he had never done... he had never went with Gene to stop Doom and save his dad. He had not fought Whitney again. He never fought aliens and he had never reclaimed his company by stopping Justin Hammer.

He couldn't believe it was just a huge lie.

In truth, he didn't even know what was real.

xXxXx

It had been a full week since he had woken up. Roberta arrived around 5 minutes ago to take him home, but since it was 1:00 in the afternoon, his friends were still at school.

 _Roberta's picking me up... because my dad is still gone..._

His blood started to boil. The things he wanted to do to him - 'the one true Mandarin'. His rage continued to grow just thinking about it. He had just exited the hospital and was lost in his anger fueled thoughts, when he had noticed that his redhead had cut class to be standing outside waiting for him.

His rage slipped away when his blue eyes had found her hazel ones. The anger, the hatred... gone.

"Hey, Tony."

"Hey Pep."

xXxXx

 _Is this real?_

Tony had lost himself in the idea while working on a neural interface upgrade at his workbench. The world around him had seemed so real when he had been trapped in the Mainframe, every detail was so precise. The genius could not help but wonder if AIM was watching him assemble his latest creation, and if they were, what they might plan to do with it.

"Tony, are you in here?" a soft voice called out from the entrance.

As soon as Pepper entered the room, Tony felt at peace again.

 _She can't be hurt again._

In order to successfully achieve that goal, he had continued to work on her armor in his spare time. Regardless of the memories he retained from his latest 'adventure', the Rescue suit had still retained the exact same design. The overall strength and protection of it however, were vastly upgraded.

 _Rescue... yet another thing that never took place._

He had lost himself in his thoughts again; feelings of fear and confusion clouding his mind, but as soon as his blue eyes fell on her hazel ones, he realized that it didn't matter. What really mattered was keeping her safe.

"Where were you at school today? Did you spend the entire day here again? Why didn't you answer my calls? I sent texts too, but you still didn't respond to them!"

The inventor pulled out his phone and sure enough - 84 missed calls and 167 unread text messages.

"I was working on something?" he asked to see if the statement would be an okay response, with her immediate response being a glare.

 _I need to tell her._

She continued walking closer to him, and when they were finally within arm distance of each other, the genius reached his arms around her waist and pulled her into a tight, yet gentle hug from his seated position.

"I assume Rhodey wasn't so pleased when you started holding him like this."

The redhead's words made the inventor nervously smile while he processed his response.

"I... well... he gave me a quick one, I guess. It wasn't really that big of a deal or anything," he replied, keeping his tight grip around her. The boy knew his words had achieved their goal when he looked up to see the color of her cheeks resemble his armor.

Hearing her... seeing her again... Tony could barely hold back. He knew that it was not actually her inside the glorified virtual reality, but it did not make it easier to forget all of the experiences.

"Pepper, I need to, um, I need to say something," the genius began; her freckled face moving down towards him to show that she was listening.

 _Just three words..._

It was so simple in theory.

"I've felt this way for a long time, but I just wasn't sure what it really was... until the day that Andros showed up."

 _Just say it._

"I know you're still dating Happy... but I..."

Inhaling deeply and eyeing his friend to ensure she was still listening, he spoke the words.

"Pepper, I love you."

* * *

On a somewhat unrelated note, season 2 of the show has been removed from the Canadian Netflix :(

But back on topic - the next chapter is going to be the start of another character's story arc, so you'll have to wait for Chapter 6 for the follow up to this :P

 **Chapter 5: The Journey** \- coming soon :)


	5. The Journey

**I've made this chapter a bit longer by splicing together parts of what used to be Chapter 6. Hopefully you enjoy this being a little bit longer :)**

 **This is the introduction to the second half of the story. It's all going to build towards the big climax.**

* * *

Chapter 5: The Journey

"Where is it?!" he demanded of the older Stark, as if the middle aged man had any better idea than the one, true Mandarin.

"How should I know, Gene?" Howard replied. The man had lost his temper a long time ago, after being forced to help the spoiled child find the rings he had spent years studying.

"For the sake of seeing your son alive, I would think that you know whatever I need to find out."

Howard Stark was a rather calm person, but after being kidnapped by Gene Khan he had started to slip into becoming a very high strung man who would swap from one emotion to the next - typically between rage and anger, with a side of hate added onto it all. The entitled boy walking before him made him think about if his son might have become like this, had he not been there at all.

To Gene Khan however, his tour guide's opinion of him meant nothing. He would not let anything stand in the way of him and his destiny.

 _I will have them all, just like mother said._

xXxXx

 _"Temugin?"_

 _The little boy heard his mother call his name and ran over to her, a wide smile plastered on his face._

 _"Yes, mother?"_

 _"It's time for bed."_

 _"But I can't sleep... not with the man around."_

 _His mother had invited the man to start living at his home. Something about the man was off, but the young child had not been able to figure it out._

 _"If you don't go to bed," his mother spoke in a gentle manner and smiled, "You won't be able to fulfil your destiny."_

xXxXx

"You realize that this would be faster if I had a computer to analyze this, right?"

The older genius' sudden words shook Gene out of his thoughts. After figuring out what was going on, he turned away to leave the prison where he had been keeping the scientist.

xXxXx

 _"Why did you kill her?" a now 13 year old Gene had finally gained the courage he had needed. The question had been on his mind for what was only six years, but seemed like ages._

 _6 years since he killed her._

 _"I did it because you were too weak to take the mantle of the Mandarin for yourself."_

 _He remembered how it broke his heart to find the lifeless body of his caring mother surrounded by overgrown grass in the garden of his home. The man had taken the ring from around the neck of her lifeless form. He had been trying to advertise what he had done._

xXxXx

"You're doing fine as it is, Stark," Gene replied, in an effort to rip himself away from the memories.

The older man groaned to the response, but continued working anyway. He needed to see his son again.

After another moment of thought, the memories made a bit more sense. The realization made the Mandarin smile.

"The ninth ring... I know where it is."

xXxXx

The genius smiled after having said the words.

"Tony, I..." her words trailed off, a faint smile appearing on her face.

"I know it's probably too late, but I needed to tell you. I needed you to know that I-"

The words were cut off by her lips landing on his. The inventor's heart was racing. His mind had gone blank.

He began pulling away for a moment, to which her face changed from a look of happiness to one of concern.

"Pepper..."

"I'm sorry, did I move too... is this ok? I don't want to..."

"Pepper," the boy started, "You're crushing my hand..."

"Oh! Sorry!"

As soon as Tony's hand became lose from her iron grip, he moved it towards her face to brush the hair away from her face.

"I'm sorry for taking so long to realize it. I should have noticed it before."

The redhead gazed into his eyes and responded with three very simple words.

"Tony, I love you."

xXxXx

 _Of course one of the rings would be kept here._

His childhood home. The place he had found his mother devoid of life. The place where Zhang killed her and took the ring that would start his journey...

 _The journey to find all of the rings._

To Gene Khan, this was the place that had started turning him into who he was. Who he had become.

"Gene, are you sure the ring is here? We've been walking around this place for hours!"

Howard had been rapidly losing his patience, and even reminding him of what his fate would be if he resisted, he continued to complain.

"Silence, Stark! We are close... I can sense it."

Raising his hands to the empty field before him, the rings on his fingers began to glow as the ground started shaking.

"Look before you, Stark. The ninth Makluan Temple!"

The field split open as the structure started raising to the surface.

xXxXx

"Gene, please tell me you know where we're going."

The boy acknowledged the statement with a snarl, then looked to his left to read some chinese characters written on the wall.

"It should be just past here..."

The Mandarin gave a sloppy flick of his wrist and blew apart the wall to reveal an ancient room filled with books. In the middle stood a faceless grey statue on a podium.

"According to the legends engraved in the walls, this guardian is known as the Adaptoid."

* * *

Nine down, one to go.

The Mark 3 will be making a debut in the next chapter. If you would like to view the design, I posted a sketch of it to my tumblr: mark50sketch.

A small hint for the last part of this whole story: it's going to be titled Rebooted ;)

 **Chapter 6: antivirus -** Coming soon


	6. antivirus

**Now things are getting really serious :)**

 **Heads up: Gene's continuing to go nuts, and it'll keep getting worse in the coming chapters.**

 **I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

* * *

Chapter 6: antivirus

The inventor's sleep that night was the best he had in years.

 _Pepper._

He smiled.

 _Finally._

The redhead loved him. His redhead loved him.

[ _ **Knock, knock, knock**_ ]

Tony sprang up from his workbench and skipped over to the large steel door of the Armory. Opening the locks with Extremis, the door slid apart; but the sight was something he had never wanted to see.

"T... To... T... Tony..." the girl was pale and limp. Her eyes - or what little he could see of them from under her barely opened eyelids - were dilated to the point that the hazel irises were no longer present.

"Pepper!" he reached his arms underneath her so that he could carry the limp body over to his bed, but by the time he laid her down, Pepper Potts had passed.

"NO!"

With the shout, he broke himself out of his nightmare.

xXxXx

 _Six times._

Tony had spent the last eight hours in his lab. He could not witness seeing another scene like this play out. His genius mind was crumbling more and more every time he woke up like this, and his body was failing him due to his lack of sleep.

 _The Extremis... it must be hacked... It can't be anything else..._

The code for the antivirus was complete. Nobody could ever be allowed to hack into his mind again. In the meantime however, he had to keep his body locked in the prototype Mark 3 to block mental attacks.

 ** _"Download started..."_**

xXxXx

Pepper had started walking to the Armory. School had just ended and Tony had not been there at all, neglecting to tell them why he wouldn't be there. Not even telling her...

 _His girlfriend_.

She ran the words through her head with glee.

 _His girlfriend!_

Recalling the kiss they had shared less than 1 week ago, she smiled. Happy had taken the breakup really well, considering the fact that they were never 'really' dating in the first place. Regardless of all that, and even though they had finally confessed their feelings for each other, Tony had been somewhat distant since then, neglecting to respond to her or Rhodey's texts and phone calls - he hadn't even been going to school.

 _He's probably just working on a new armor. Maybe it's my suit!_

Her thoughts continued to circle through her head as she continued to walk.

xXxXx

 ** _"Download complete."_**

"Tony..." a soft voice called out to him from the distance.

"Pep?"

"Not quite."

"Who...?"

"Remember, I found out the location of your base when you were in the Mainframe."

"Sandhurst..."

"Have you been having the visions, Anthony?"

"What... I don't..."

"I did warn you that you would rip your mind apart."

"But... y-you... hacked...?"

"The forceful separation - it's destroying your mind. You wouldn't survive long like this... so I took it upon myself to make it quick for you."

After saying his short piece, he snapped his fingers. Blasting through the doors of the base, a group of A.I.M. soldiers immediately started firing at the armored hero.

xXxXx

[ ** _B-O-O-M!_** ]

 _The Armory._

She started to run.

 _Tony._

The doors had been ripped off of their hinges. Rubble and pieces of metal - including Iron Man suit pieces - were everywhere. Entering the collapsed base, she started looking for anything that was remotely similar to a human body.

That was when she saw the red liquid that had started leaking out from under a large pile of rubble.

xXxXx

 _The armor was sustaining a massive beating. He tried to put up a fight, but being a prototype, his Mark 3 didn't stand a chance - he was outmanned and outgunned._

 _He started to fly away. Staying and fighting would be suicide._

xXxXx

The redhead began tearing away at the debris as best as she could. The body laying under the rubble was an A.I.M. agent.

xXxXx

 _The exit chute was jammed, but a well placed repulser shot would blow it open. He fired his repulsers at the covering, making it crumble and fall on the A.I.M. agent standing below._

xXxXx

Looking from side to side, she noticed a crack in the wall to her right. A small shimmer of light reflected off of a purple and silver metal object hidden underneath.

Pulling apart the shattered wall had revealed an armor that Tony had been secretly working on.

xXxXx

 _The hero narrowly escaped through the exit pipe before an A.I.M. soldier sent the entire place up in flames._

xXxXx

"Our business partner will not be pleased with this turn of events," Basil stated to his small army of A.I.M. loyalists.

"You are correct about that, Basil."

The orb of light appeared swiftly before the new head of A.I.M. After a moment, the glowing ball disappeared to reveal a man covered in black armor akin to a samurai's.

The new appearance in the room was felt tremendously as every member of the organization kneeled before him. The man raised his right hand and pointed five of his nine rings at the frightened leader.

"You promised me Stark's lifeless body. I'm not seeing a corpse."

"Well, yes... but we can still-" the Controller's words were silenced by a poison cloud forming around his head. The gas quickly began filling his lungs, and within mere moments Basil Sandhurst's leadership had ceased.

The Controller would never be in control again.

"Take him as an example of what I will do to anyone who gets in my way," the villain pointed towards the decaying corpse laying on the floor beside him.

"Now kneel before the Mandarin."

* * *

Bye bye, Basil.

I hate streaming services sometimes. All a Canadian guy wants to do is watch Iron Man: Armored Adventures season 2, is that so much to ask?

The length should continue growing as we move along, so that should make it a little bit easier to wait every week :)

 **Chapter 7: archive** \- Coming Soon


	7. archive

**Get ready for it to go depressing again :)**

 **So now I have to start tying the story and the series together based on memory... good thing I binge watched the entire series 4 times during the summer :P**

* * *

Chapter 7: archive

"Is that a new suit?" the low, distorted voice began.

"Titanium Man... Don't..."

The inventor's mind was shattering. He didn't have time to deal with any obstacles, least of all Hammer goons.

 _My head..._

He started flying away at the fastest speed his damaged armor could carry him, but his foe was faster.

"Not so fast, Iron Man," the villain had placed his grasp around the hero's wrist, leaving him dangling.

 _Extremis... must hack..._

The larger suit began to shudder.

"What's going on?! My suit's shutting down! Sasha? Sasha!" Justin Hammer screeched through the internal communications channel.

"AAHHHH!"

A surge burned through Tony's mind. The short, simple use of Extremis was accelerating his already quickly deteriorating condition.

With his enemy frozen in place, Tony flew to the only place he knew no one would look for him: the abandoned Stark mansion.

xXxXx

She spent hours looking through the rubble, but there was nothing to find aside from A.I.M. soldiers who hadn't made it out in time.

 _He's alive... He has to be alive._

xXxXx

The list of potential cures was getting shorter by the minute. Every method had a million reasons for why it wouldn't work - all except for one.

He had to reset his mind to how it was before the Mainframe.

 _I won't remember that I... I won't... I won't know that I love..._

 _It's the only option._

If he didn't, his mind would rip itself apart.

xXxXx

"Pepper!"

Rhodey sprinted across the collapsed room towards the sobbing redhead.

"What happened?" He asked, using every ounce of control he had in order to keep the situation from getting worse.

"Rhodey... A.I.M. was... every armor... they must... Tony is... T-Tony i-is... is..."

Her eyes cleared and she looked up for a moment, only to drop her head again to continue crying.

"He's gone..."

xXxXx

He began the upload sequence, leaving a locked archive of his memories - thanks to Extremis - on the computer.

The computer began deleting the experiences he had in the virtual world... certain memories flashing before his eyes.

 _The warm embrace when he gave her the Rescue armor._

 _Kissing her cheek after defeating the Makluans..._

 _Sharing the first kiss on the school rooftop on graduation day..._

 _Finding himself in her arms after escaping the Mainframe..._

 _Telling her about how he felt..._

 _Her._

He thought about her.

xXxXx

Pepper wiped the tears from her eyes for a moment and saw her friend collapse, starting to shed tears of his own.

 _A.I.M. killed Tony. What else would they do want with him now? They already have Extremis..._

Variations of the thought had invaded her head since the moment she entered the ruins of the base. The tears covering the redhead's hazel eyes had finally cleared again, allowing her to stare at Rhodey's broken form. He let out a small uneven whisper.

"Maybe he escaped..."

 _He'd be back by now if he escaped._

It was clear to him what she thought when her sobbing restarted, louder and more ear piercing than before.

They could not even begin to comfort each other. Rhodey had lost his brother, and Pepper had lost her heart.

xXxXx

His eyes lightly twitched and slowly opened.

 _What's going on?_

The boy's head was clouded with questions. Why was he at his old home? Why could he not remember what had just happened? Where had his friends been? What had happened to him?

His answer came in the form of a folder on the computer. All that he found in it was a video, an encrypted archive, and a digital blueprint.

The inventor's first instinct was to click on the archive, but it was encrypted too heavily to be opened without the password. Realizing that it would take him too long to decrypt, he decided to click on the video.

"Tony..."

The genius jumped at the video of himself and stared with utter confusion.

"A lot has happened... and I did what I needed to do..."

The version of himself in the video suddenly winced in pain.

"I... we were going to die. The only way I could save myself - save us - was to erase some memories..."

A tear slowly fell from his right eye, but this time it was clear that it was not from physical pain as he sniffled.

 _Why was I so sad?_

"S-sorry... you have to use the blueprint to repair the armor..." He continued, gesturing at the suit of armor in the background.

"It was damaged when A.I.M. attacked me at the Armory... and then there was an explosion..."

He trailed off, and the video quickly cut to another recording, this time with rivers of tears flowing from his bloodshot eyes. Fighting his sobs, he took a deep breath and continued speaking.

"Tell... tell her... tell her I'm sorry."

xXxXx

"Where is the ring, Stark?!" the dark menace spat impatiently. He assumed that having a crew of A.I.M. scientists working under an expert like Howard would have made this process faster. He was wrong.

"Shoved up your ass I assume," the elder Stark growled under his breath.

"Did you say something?"

"It was nothing, _oh_ _Great Khan._ "

Regardless of Gene noticing the scientist's polite attitude had dissipated a long time ago, he still became irritated at the arrogance that the man displayed.

 _Arrogant. Just like his son._

The tyrant engulfed himself in an orb of bright light, and a moment later he was sitting outside of the ninth Makluan Temple - outside of his old home.

"He will pay for his insolence, mother. Soon enough, they will all pay... the Mandarin will make sure of it."

* * *

So how was that for a happy chapter?

It might take a little while to post chapter 8, but I'll try my best to get it out soon :)

 **Chapter 8** \- Coming soon


	8. Resting Place

**Hey there, it's been a while... I've made a new chapter for you though! I mean, it's a shorter chapter made purely to streamline the transition into the final story arc, but this means that the story will be finished before the end of December :P**

 **I'd also like to sincerely thank you for your patience. I really hope that you find it was worth it in the end.**

* * *

Chapter 8: Resting Place

This was his chance. The weight of the dark presence had finally lifted, even if it was only temporary. No one could know the resting place of the final ring.

"I need you to delete that location from every database you have."

"But sir-"

"Delete them."

"We have-"

"DO IT!" There was no time for arguing with a low level A.I.M. agent. The aging man's time was growing short, regardless of what happened now.

xXxXx

A strong empty feeling surged through the young genius head as he continued to sit before the computer. He started to feel alone again, triggering another loud fit of sobbing to escape him.

 _Why can't this stop?_

 _Why is this happening?_

 _Why?_

xXxXx

 _He had to have felt it by now._

Despite the scientist's best efforts to hide the location, Gene Khan already had 9 rings. The Mandarin could not be kept from his birthright.

xXxXx

 _I was chosen to unite them all._

 _I was chosen to bring order to this world._

 _It is my-_

Gene Khan's thoughts were interrupted by what felt like an electric pulse through his mind. The tenth ring had been located.

xXxXx

An orb of pure light began forming less than an arms length away from the man, alerting him of the dark entity's arrival. It was the end for the genius... he was mere inches from an embodiment of Death.

"Stark tried to hide the ring from you, Great Khan," the A.I.M. agent confessed snidely, with no doubt in his mind that he would be rewarded for revealing this to his leader. The dark figure showed no surprise as the expressionless mask slowly dropped to be directed to the perpetrator. The cold light emitting from the black tyrant's eyes grew brighter as a single emotionless sentence echoed throughout the cracked psyche of the once happy father.

 _"This was how it was meant to be, Stark."_

The Mandarin's hand rose to rest directly in front of the dead man's heart.

 _I'm sorry Tony. I'm so, so sorry_.

The last thing Howard Stark would ever see was the memory of Maria Stark smiling warmly, inviting him to join her in watching over their newborn son.

xXxXx

The shadow of the man evaporated as if it were never there. No one would dare stand in the way of his birthright and survive.

"Where is it?" his deep voice boomed.

"According to this map, it's located somewhere in New York." the fool stated nervously, growing anxious to receive the prize that he believed he deserved.

As a gift for his service, he was met with his own disintegration.

 _I was chosen to unite them all._

 _I was chosen to bring order to this world._

 _It is my destiny._

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Destiny** \- Coming soon

The wait for the next chapter shouldn't be nearly as bad as this one was. I actually know where I'm going from this point on, so I got this ;)


	9. Destiny

**We're at the second to last full chapter! Yay!**

 **That being said, hopefully everything will work out and fit nicely. If this goes well it should wet your appetite for the big finale :)**

 **I'm pretty excited to get into the last bit, so I'll make sure you guys don't have to wait too long for the next chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 9: Destiny

 _It's finished._

The Mark 3 armor was finally repaired and fully battle ready. He had no actual idea why half of the features were built in anymore, but there must have been a good reason for including them.

Whipping out his Stark-Pod, he began writing a message to his friends. The genius had hopes that they would understand why he didn't immediately come back for them, despite him no longer knowing that for himself. He had to see them again.

He had almost finished his message when an emergency alert started broadcasting from all of his devices.

xXxXx

"Queens is currently experiencing a huge power outage as a man described only as 'a devil in black samurai armor' tears through the streets, seemingly searching for something. Police have tried approaching the man, but anyone caught within a block's radius has been instantly enslaved by some form of mind control. The city has been caught in major destruction with only one question: where is Iron Man?"

xXxXx

"Where is Iron Man?"

 _The city... I have to stop this._

"Mark 3, deploy."

Rising from the ground, small silver hexagonal plates began throwing themselves at the inventor, and as every square inch of him started to reflect silver, the plates flipped themselves inside out to form a familiar red and yellow color scheme. When all of the main body armor was attached, the helmet rose up from the table and clasped itself down overtop of his head. As a finishing touch, the back of the helmet flipped the faceplate over to sit in front of his face, and slid back with a snap.

 _This isn't over Gene._

xXxXx

"Where is it?!" the short fuse of the maniac had burnt out. He wanted the ring, NOW.

"Gene, this isn't worth it."

The flames from the armored Avenger's repulsers slowly died down as he dropped to the ground, ready to confront his adversary.

"This is my birthright, Stark! You and your father... both too arrogant to see that nothing can come between me from my destiny!"

"Gene, look at yourself... look what all this power is doing to you!"

"What this power is doing to me? It has given me the strength to fix whatever I want... control whatever I want! You betrayed me Stark! I only wanted what I deserved!"

With that, the hands of the Mandarin started to glow.

xXxXx

"T-T-To-Tony?" the redhead stuttered, trying to regain some slight composure at the sight of the hero on the screen of her Stark-Pod.

"Tony... alive...? It can't be... Tony... he's alive...?"

xXxXx

The power hungry menace was attempting to hit him with everything he had, but the villain could not defend against the Makluan disruptors that the genius had left for himself prior to his mind wipe. Every beam had been neutralized before it could reach it's mark, assuming Tony hadn't managed to simply dodge the attack. Turning his jets to full power, Iron Man propelled himself directly towards his enemy and with a swift uppercut, he managed to send the one true Mandarin flying into the distance.

xXxXx

The girl had assembled the purple and silver armor around herself piece by piece. When she had locked in the final piece, she activated her repulsers and flew towards the scene of the battle.

xXxXx

The golden goliath saw a figure approach from the distant skyline. The more he looked towards the stranger's distinct magenta flight trail, the more familiar it looked...

 _"I've felt this way for a long time, but I just wasn't sure what it really was... until the day that Andros showed up."_

 ** _Just say it._**

 _"I know you're still dating Happy... but I..."_

 _Inhaling deeply and eyeing his friend to ensure she was still listening, he spoke the words._

 _"Pepper, I love you."_

The feeling of a split forming in his brain began to return. The memories were coming back.

xXxXx

The injured tyrant could not understand.

 _I have nine rings... how could he beat me?!_

His left hand became drawn to the ground before him. The final ring.

xXxXx

The champion collapsed to the ground and began scratching into his helmet as the pain became unbearable, more so than he had ever felt before.

"MAKE IT STOP!"

The crippled teenager's last sight was the Rescue armor landing. His mind had had enough.

"H-h-hhhheelpp... m-meeee..."

Then everything went black.

xXxXx

The dark form looked towards the crowd forming around their "protector" and knew they were too preoccupied to notice what was about to be done. The shadow raised his brightly gleaming fingers, and out of the ground before him came the last Makluan Temple.

"The final ring... it will be mine."

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Hands of the Mandarin** \- Coming soon


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